1989 - 1994

The first Buckwhip release ever came during this time. It was Gary’s solo album titled Gary: Wonder Child. It won the album of the year at the 1992 New Zealand Music Awards. In the meantime Miri and Arty were picking up awards of their own. Miri received a “Excellent Effort in Creative Writing” Award, while Arty picked up the award for “Using Great Initiative During Quiet Time.” Which Arty claims is the greatest achievement of his life.

While the rising and then quickly plummeting star of Gary meant a great cash boon for the Buckwhip family. Randy’s shame, heartbreak and unfulfilled ambition became too much when in 1994, he slunk away underneath the caravan and died like an old cat. Randy’s death coincidentally coincided with Fanny’s release from jail. However, she never reunited with her family. Instead she took her life in a religious cult mass suicide. Benny later gained inspiration from this, and eventually wrote the song Suicide Bathroom. Benny: “I had never even heard of ‘suicide’ before, but then I ended up using the word in one of my songs. Every cloud, blah, blah…”

The band spent most of these formative years under the tutelage of Uncle Fiddles, who was a violin-fiddling maestro, and could even read music!